Weblogs and online technologies have helped Dean and others collect a lot of money, but you still gotta have a TV persona that hits home. Just reality in 2004. I'm not bitter about that.

The lessons for big-company evangelism (or small company, for that matter) are the same. If your product isn't something that average people like, it doesn't matter how good the weblogs are.

And from Dan Chak:

But the important thing to remember is that The Nation is not Iowa.

9:13:24 PM   []

Why not just title a magazine ING for I'M NOT GAY and be done with it?

8:52:18 PM   []

I used to. But now I'm so busy that I just forgot to go to hockey at 3. Grrrrrrr.

Update: I rushed and got 20 minutes in. Here is my ever evolving to do list. I find maintaining it on a wiki vastly superior to Outlook's task functionality (perhaps because I like outlining..).
3:16:37 PM   []

• Two 1A10BC Kidde multi-purpose fire extinguishers (never used!): $25 each
• 100 foot garden hose. Paid $40 for it two weeks ago. Selling for $25.
• Grey office chair. Tilts. Swivels. It ain't no Aeron but it's probably better than the chair you're sitting in now. Only $50.
• 1 bucket of neon green paint. You gotta see this paint to believe it. There's even a great story about why I bought it. You get the story and the paint for $20 (original cost: $43+tax). Should be enough to do a small room or a few accent walls.

2:51:33 PM   []

For Sale: My 1995 Dodge Neon: $2500 4 door 5 speed manual Safetied and emissions tested Must sell since I'm moving to Seattle (if I can get a transcript).

All serious offers will be considered.

Guide to selling a car in Ontario abridged version:

• Get it safetied $50
• Get it 'drive clean'/emissions tested $35
• If it's registered in Ontario you need to get a $20 package from the Minsitry of Transport that will have the car's history and bill of sale. If it's from out-of-province you don't need this.
• Advertising on Autotrader: $35
• Advertising in The Record: $50

1:28:20 PM   []

This is not good for my H1B visa situation because as John alluded to earlier the US could run out of H1B visas any day now. If anyone knows anyone in the registrars office that can help me out I will be forever indebted.
12:42:52 PM   []

So I went to my flooring company to see if they had any remnants that would do the job. They didn't. So I brought home some swatches and we picked a really nice carpet out. It complimented the downstairs color, had the right thread count, had the toughest stain protection and, of course, the longest warranty. The company then came out and measured my place up and I got a quote in the mail. Turns out that nice carpet was also expensive. Being the cheap Hotelier that I am I went back to the flooring company and picked out the blandest, beigeiest, most awful looking carpet you've ever seen. In fact I think I ripped similar carpet out of my living room it was so bad.

At 9am, three hours early, with everyone still in bed the carpet installers showed up and I hurriedly cleaned out the basement (into the bathroom) and left them to their own devices. An hour into the job one of the guys comes and asks to borrow our phone. He then heads into the kitchen and I over hear him say, "ughhh we have a bit of a problem here" and he goes on to explain to his boss that they have started to install the wrong carpet (they had two similar sized pieces of carpet in the truck). The other guy hearing him and I guess suspecting I was listening in from the living room takes me downstairs and asks me if I like the carpet. Not admitting I was color blind, I did admit all I did was pick out the beigeiest remnant they had and what they had now installed looked just fine to me. It could have been the carpet I had ordered, I really couldn't remember.

They talk some more to the guy on the phone and decide to continue installing this carpet because after all it was already all cut-up and ready to be stapled down. One of the guys then tells me that this piece of carpet was destined for own of those big box McMansions on the edge of town. Turns out this ugly beige shit is all the rage in suburbia. The only difference between my original carpet selection and this new stuff is that this beige stuff is top quality and really expensive and only found in million dollar homes. Is it what they say it is? Who knows. Can I tell the difference? Absolutely not.

They're now continuing to install it and sharing with each other all the other times they have had big mix ups. I.e. installing carpet in the wrong unfinished home in suburbia, lot mix ups, snow days,... They say they're lucky since the other job they were doing today, whose carpet I got, are out of town till the summer (they're that rich!) so there is no rush to re-order and re-install. I guess unlike myself, the big bucks interior decorator who does McMansions might have noticed the carpet switchero.

Yeah, my life really is that exciting.
10:47:26 AM   []